Friends Peace Teams has assisted people in Rwanda and Uganda to develop
use of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in their communities.
Additionally, AVP organizations function independently in South Africa
and Nigeria. Many of the people who have helped bring AVP to new places
have long-standing connections to that place, which help them plan and
lead effective workshops. I, on the other hand, at age 22, having never
been to Africa, agreed to organize the introduction of AVP to Ghana.

In August 2000, three experienced AVP facilitators with experience
in Ghana and I led a series of AVP workshops including all three levels.
Nineteen Ghanaians completed the Training for Trainers and are now preparing
to apprentice their first workshops.

Rachel
Harrison and Marcel Kitissou at
Baltimore-Washington International Airport
about to depart for Ghana.

How was Friends Peace Teams helpful? When I first agreed to organize
the introduction of AVP to Ghana, I worried about how ill-prepared I
was. I agreed to do it because I knew AVP could be helpful to people,
I knew I could learn a lot through the experience, and I knew that I
had the resources to do a good job even though it didn’t feel that way.

I knew I would have help. Nana Fosu Randall (originally from Ghana)
and her husband John Randall (of Scarsdale Meeting) asked me to organize
the project for their school in Nana’s home city of Kumasi. Founded
4 years ago, John William Montessori School is a primary school, which
has just expanded to include junior secondary school. Nana and John
wanted to use AVP as an in-service enrichment for their teachers, and
to build community between teachers and parents. Their enthusiasm for
my using the project as a learning experience enabled me to ask questions
and work without pretending I had to know everything. They also stayed
in Ghana for part of my trip to be a resource to all four of the international
team members.

The Friends Peace Teams African Great Lakes Initiative was a resource
for information about how to organize a project well. I had already
been to some FPT Coordinating Committee meetings and seen a glimmer
of how much work it took to organize AGLI projects. More helpful, though,
were the role models I observed by going to the Coordinating Committee.
They had helped me envision myself in the work before I was asked to
organize the project.

I tried to remember that my goal was not to be ‘prepared’ in the way
I sometimes confused it to be. I didn’t have to decide ahead of time
what my response would be to every situation. Many of the things I had
to learn about the town of Tanoso were things I would have to learn
if I was organizing a project in an American city I had never visited.
My goal for learning before the trip was to know enough about the culture
so that I could communicate with people, and then keep learning along
the way. The inability to be prepared is a gift, for if we could prepare
for any situation and did not have to keep taking in what we saw and
thinking along the way, we might do things perfectly, but the experience
itself would hold little interest.

Why is AVP effective in Ghana? Ghanaians are doing very well
considering the oppression that has interfered with their lives. But
like every culture I have learned about, some subjects are taboo; relationships
do not always involve complete respect or good communication; people
believe that violence is outside themselves and have difficulty looking
at inner demons or early experiences that have shaped them. AVP helps
create a space to examine themselves without dictating or predicting
the subjects that will come up in a particular exercise. AVP communication
techniques also work flexibly to assist people to own their feelings
and communicate them in their own words.

In AVP workshops, it is clear that the mere presence of people from
different backgrounds can help create a space to speak honestly from
inside oneself rather than through a shared cultural norm. When I participate
in or facilitate AVP workshops in a men’s prison, I can use the art
of the ‘dumb question.’ As an outsider to a culture, I can ask why things
are done a certain way. They can do the same for me. Though in an all-Quaker
group, the answer might be “That’s polite” or “We always do it that
way,” an honest question gets past these to more meaningful examinations.
Designed by a ‘multicultural’ group, Quakers and inmates working together,
AVP works best when it involves more than one community or culture.

Nana and John let me ask dumb questions. Any person can be helpful
to someone from another culture in an AVP workshop by asking a dumb
question to spark a new level of honesty. But Westerners can also be
helpful to other Westerners by allowing them to ask dumb questions;
help them become more familiar with Ghanaian culture and overcome the
timidity that keeps people from learning well when information is available.

What’s Next? Since August, the Ghanaians who completed the Training
for Facilitators have been meeting monthly to practice facilitation
skills. This summer, another international team will co-lead five or
six AVP workshops with Ghanaian apprentices. The team will include two
people who were part of last year’s delegation (myself and Marcel Kitissou).
We will assist the Ghanaians to evaluate the past year’s system of monthly
meetings and develop a plan for AVP for the 2001-2002 school year during
which they will lead workshops without international assistance.

I predict they will hold a total of 2-5 workshops in the 2001-2002
school year, planned under the supervision of their own chosen organizers.
AVP workshops can be held for minimal costs, particularly since this
group has free use of classrooms and the service of school staff. The
workshops may be paid for by money left over from this project if possible.
The Ghanaians have also been seeking funding within their country, which
they will eventually need to run an independent AVP organization.

You Can Be Helpful Too. Please use me to learn more about whatever
curiosity this article has sparked in you. To ask me questions or request
a copy of our budget for this summer’s delegation, send e-mail to me
at rachelavery@yahoo.com. For more information about AVP/USA, see www.avpusa.org.
You can link from there to AVP International. For more information about
John William Montessori School, see the school’s website at http://jwms.org